MR Tucker & Dale

If you're a fan of horror movies, like me, particularly 80s slasher flicks and B-movie, then this is for you!

There's been long talks of a rumored Evil Dead remake. (and from the looks of things as of now, we might finally get it soon). But don't mind these!
It will be an Evil Dead movie in name only, with none the charm or the fun. "A serious" Evil Dead won't make up a good movie.

The following is probably the closest we'll get to a modern-day Evil Dead 2. A very fun entertaining horror/comedy flick with a lot of love for the genre and yet not taking itself too seriously to play with tropes and the formula of slashers.
If you wanna have the best experience possible watch it, but don't read my review!
For the others, that have already seen it or not, I'll be spoiling some details but not too much.

Movie: Tucker & Dale vs Evil
Directed by Eli Craig
Release date 2010
Genre Horror/comedy
Country Canada

Tucker & Dale is sort of a parody and homage of the whole "cabin scenario" so overplayed many times in horror movies all the way since the 80s to this day.
As such the movie contains all the usual elements from the likes of Friday The 13th, Evil Dead, Cabin Fever, etc.. Most of the various horror genres have become so codified, formulaic over the years no thanks to all these dozens of sequels, those hundred of franchises spanning various decades.

The genre this movie directly plays with, the slasher genre, is easy to play with.

A group of friends go on a little trip in the woods? Check.
Strange guy scares and tries to warn them? Check.
First encounter scaring them? Check.
One of them gets separated from the group? Check.
Trying to defend themselves, the kids takes action into arms? The separate into smaller groups? They get killed one by one? The innocent girl survives? Check, check, check and check!
But there's a twist...

A group of college students go camping in West Virginia.
On their way up there they have a bizarre encounter with two hillbillies at a gas station.

Once they arrive at the cabin, they start acting like dumb kids in horror movies do.
There's the douchebag, the jock, the bimbo, etc.
While swimming in the lake they lose Allison. The hillbillies get to her first.
So one of them takes the leadership, Chad. Because he's read clearly in their games. Those damn' hillbillies are dangerous monsters.
Chad won't let them kill the rest of the group one by one.

They try to fight back, organize themselves and all.
But those... monsters are just way too smart or something!
They pick them up one by one, attack them in the forest, chase them with a chainsaw, make one of the kids kill himself with a gun...

When is this nightmare gonna stop?!

But it all started so innocently...

Tucker & Dale were at the gas station, they met these cool outsiders and all.
Dale tried to chat with that girl but he's just to shy.
Back at their home they went fishing and found this girl Allison again. She slipped and hurt herself in the lake!
They brought her home. Dale tended to her help. Suddenly, all hell broke loose!
The kids started killing themselves around them, or trying to hurt them!
One impaled himself near Dale, another one ran along Tucker in the woods only to, you guessed it, kill himself as well.
What's going on?!

Written and directed by the genius Eli Craig, the movie took three years(!) to be made.
It's a fun twist on the concept of this genre. And quite gory too.
It's done in true fashion of the genre but plays with our expectations, and those of its characters.
(afterall, these kids for once knew what to do and how to react in these situations.. only they watched waaaay to much horror movies)

It also plays with our perceptions of others, the "eye of the beholder" and all that.

The movie walks a thin line between true parody (like those awful Scary Movies) and tribute to the genre. But in the end it goes a bit more conventional when revelations are made and the cards are shuffled around.

The film stars Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly!), Tyler Labine (which most of you might know from Reaper) and Katrina Bowden (30 Rock).
Tudyk and Labine really "make" this movie. They simply ooze personality and character, this duo makes our hillbillies relatable and engaging characters.
At the end of the day, characters make fiction, be it in movies, comics, etc. And like Ash Williams in Evil Dead, this movie is about Tucker & Dale Versus Evil.

Overall, a fantastic movie!
Easily one of my favorite "horror comedies", and there's been tons of them since the great Shaun of the Dead.
Bound to become a classic!

The film is fun, entertaining and highly rewatchable.
There's lot of fun quotes, great moment and neat special effects.
The movie's been nominated to various awards since its release, and even won several of them as well.

There's a fun bonus on DVD worth a mention!
You can watch the first half of the flick as a straight horror movie, with a different score and all. Kinda short, but nice nonetheless.

I give it:

2.5 / 3 Necronomicons!